West Palm Beach, Florida, police are going undercover as giant Easter bunnies. As morning commuter traffic slowed to a crawl earlier this week, motorists saw a bunny with a sign reading “Have a safe, hoppy holiday. Buckle up!” And through the large, netted eyes of the bunny costume’s large head, the cop was watching them right back, making note of who had a seatbelt on and who didn’t, so nearby officers could ticket them as part of the state’s “Click it or ticket!” campaign. A similar program in Glendale, Calif. was shut down in 2010 for being “breathtakingly dangerous,” but in Florida, it has been pretty successful so far: In just two hours, 50 motorists were cited.

I’m not clear. If you did not have your seat belt on, saw the rabbit and its message, and then put your seat belt on==did you get a ticket or not? Hard to complain about getting a ticket after you get a nice reminder like that.

…. have to click on the link within the link. Glendale idiot official complained the bunny costumes were “head-turning.” I’d say if you are so easily distracted, you shouldn’t be driving in the first place. Double Down on the Bunny Brigade.

Argue all you want, the wearing of seatbelts has done more to prevent motor deaths than any other device/law. That particular law exists not just to protect drivers, but their witless passengers who are at the drivers’ mercy.
‘Oh but we have airbags’ you will whine.
Airbags ONLY work properly if the occupant is also wearing a seatbelt, no matter what ignorant american speeders might think. Without the belt, airbags actually cause more damage to the occupant.
If you’re incapable of obeying such an easy to comply-with logical law that takes less than 3 seconds to perform when you get in your car, then you deserve to die hideously in a burning wreck with your family around you when you t-bone a semi-trailer while yacking or texting on your phone or painting on 7 layers of makeup.

Oh please. Quit pretending you give a fuck about anyone’s safety. You’re another clown with an authority fetish who gets some kind of sexual gratification from doing as your told and seeing people punished who don’t. At least be honest with yourself about it, because you’re not fooling anyone who is paying attention.

Yeah, but ya know. They figure the one locale where people are least likely to buckle up. Not near where you live, when you have the time to do it. But in some busy shopping area, where getting out of a cramped parking lot, tends to take one’s attention away from buckling up. I know there’s no excuse for it. But there’s also no excuse for the cops, choosing their traps, based on statistics of success. When they’re supposed to be doing this to protect us. But instead is about the raking in the revenue, in spite of what they say. And they always deny it’s not.

I was once the victim of a state policeman, who cut me off on the highway, slowed down in front of me, and then tailgated me when I passed him. To get me to drive over the speed limit, for Christmas Eve. As I tried to pull over, all the other traffic got in the way. So I drove a bit longer. He was all over the place, trying to keep me from taking an off ramp, he didn’t want to follow me down. At stopping me, he said I DIDN’T use my turn signal! He changed lanes six times behind me, without signaling. And I had to leave my car in the cold to get the ticket, because he wouldn’t. When he opened his passenger door, his handheld radar gun fell out. This cop was a douchebag in every respect. After he drove on, I saw him trying to goad other drivers to speed. Before he turned off for home, I presume. A nice Christmas for him, anyway. I made my money back, by NEVER visiting the west side of town again. They haven’t seen any of my money in 27 years. That’s how I roll. Slow economic revenge!

So, for you, anyone who defies a political dictate that you believe is good for them deserves a horrible death. The end justifies the means, is the implication of your argument, and not only that, those who dissent deserve a barbaric end.

I have to agree with the others who replied to you. You really don’t care about the safety of others. You only care about obedience to the state.

I think they should do this everywhere to catch speeders as well………..I will never get why it’s so hard for half the population to follow THE SIMPLEST of societal rules such as speed limits and seatbelts and such. If you can’t even muster the will and brainpower to do that, what other laws are you breaking? I mean really. We could fill so many budget gaps if we would just go after speeders alone.

So, if the speed limit on a given street is say 45 MPH, you’d be OK with them changing it to 40 MPH right? How about 30 MPH? 10 MPH? Is there no speed limit at which you will realize the speed limit is arbitrarily low? I tried an experiment not too long ago where I traveled at exactly the speed limit on the freeway. I had to drive in the slow lane and nearly got into numerous accidents as the vast majority of traffic was moving at 10-15 MPH faster and was whipping around me. Traveling at the speed of traffic is almost always safer than picking an arbitrary speed regardless of the speed of traffic.

the “nanny state”, as you put it, passed the seat belt law to protect the insurance companies, this helps lessen the payouts in an accident. once again the big corporations are in charge of government.

What are you griping about? He/She is in uniform. If you just assume everyone you don’t know extremely well is a cop who is out to get you or at least will turn you in to collect the reward, you can avoid all sorts of problems.

Sounds paranoid? Maybe but this is only one of thousands of instances that proves big brother is looking over you shoulder most of the time.

This is a tremendous waste of time. Instead of concentrating on real criminals, . . . .

Here in Pennsylvania, when they passed the law allowing penalties for not wearing your seat belt, the proviso was that it wouldn’t be – I forget the term – a primary stopping offense, meaning they couldn’t stop you if the only thing wrong was that you weren’t wearing your seat belt, but if they stopped you for something else, they could. Of course, the nanny state has now morphed it into it now being a primary offense.

I am a firm believer in the use of seat belts. The statistics behind their use, without any doubt justify their use. I’ve been in one accident where the seat belt kept me behind the steering wheel, allowing me some modicum of control. Otherwise, the accident could have turned out much worse than it was. Statistically, seat belts only really help the user but there is a non-trivial percentage where they help someone outside the car.

That being said, I am not a believer in the government forcing anyone to use one. If you kill or hurt someone because you didn’t wear a seat belt, then the damaged party should sue your ass into oblivion — reckless endangerment (note they can do that now if you hurt someone and they can prove you weren’t wearing your seat belt). A few high profile cases and education during the formative years on what could happen if you don’t take this simple precaution should convince anyone smart enough to drive to use it.

Insurance companies may or may not have had anything to do with this. It’s easy to deny coverage if it can be proven you weren’t wearing a seat belt. However, it does make for a nice random road tax when things are looking slim back at a city hall.

If someone under the age consent is riding in your vehicle and you didn’t make them wear a seat belt, it’s your fault.

Studies show that someone behind the wheel is better able to control the vehicle during an accident. If it is proven that you weren’t wearing a seat belt, it could be argued that you were negligent and could have eliminated or reduced damages to somebody else. YMMV but there is precedent.

If you jump on the road with 2 tons of steel, you better be able to control it.

When you start with the usual catch phrase: “When studies show…” YOU are giving up your right to Liberty! Funny how you use that as your handle too.

THIS IS AMERICA STUPID! If anyone of consenting age wants to drive without a seat belt then they should have that RIGHT! I agree that it may be “stupid” to do so, but it’s still America and people in this country still have a RIGHT TO CHOOSE for themselves – no matter how stupid it may seem to the rest of us!

And if you want to point out that idiots without seat belts or even idiots who smoke are some kind of monetary burden to the rest of us then you may have a point. But when you let that be your argument then you give up your rights – AND LIBERTY!

Oh! Wait a minute! In the case of seat belts it’s NOT a RIGHT cause IDIOTS like YOU have allowed the jerks in power to take away that right. And they did it based on some bunch of “studies” too. At least a moron can still smoke if he/she wants to. That is, until people like YOU start in with the “studies have shown…” bullshit!

Understand now how your “attitude” and thinking is NOT Liberty loving?

(Don’t bother answering since I know you’re going to TRY and refute your own ignorance because your feelings are now hurt. Anything you say form here on out is pure bullshit.)

Very well said. I find it very hard to believe that there are actually people out there who drive (or ride in) cars without automatically using the seat belt. But, hey they elected W twice, so there’s no telling.

As far as the law is concerned, it’s BS. Those stupid enough to drive unbelted should just head to the cemetery and stop sucking up our air/water/food/gasoline/parking. There’s certainly no shortage of human beings on the planet, particularly stupid ones.

Seat belt violations are just more NANNY LAWS! If you doubt it then do us all a favor and take a .45 caliber lead “pill” administered at twice the speed of sound to the roof of your mouth.

Stupid fuzz. Don’t they have BETTER things to do with their time than issue tickets for absolute bullshit? …Like maybe catch CRIMINALS?!

For crying out loud! There’s probably a room full of warrants in every county in America just waiting to be served by police or dummies like that Dog guy. You just KNOW Florida has a few criminals who could easily be rounded up. Just open a Facebook account – or even a phone book – note the idiots address and go arrest him/her for EXISTING violations. If that dummy Dog guy can do it and not even be a cop you just have to wonder why actual cops don’t do it. But do the cops do that? Answer; No! Instead, they (cops) decide to dress up like “furries” and go issue tickets for absolute bullshit Nanny law violations.

Apparently, if a cop gets into an accident the hand of god descends from heaven to cradle his little cop forehead.

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